Elsa Storm Hammers East Coast With Heavy Rain And Wind: Latest Forecast

On Friday, Elsa Storm, a post-tropical cyclone, pounded the East Coast with heavy rain and strong gusts.

After making landfall in Florida and pummeling the southeastern United States, Elsa is moving north with the eye of the storm sweeping over the coastlines of Delaware, New Jersey, and New York on Friday morning before reaching Massachusetts and Maine this afternoon, according to the latest forecast from the National Weather Service.

Elsa was heading northeast at 35 mph as of 5 p.m. ET, with its center 65 miles southeast of Portland, Maine. The fatal storm included continuous winds of up to 50 miles per hour, with gusts considerably higher.

Elsa’s strength isn’t expected to alter significantly until Friday, according to the National Weather Service. The storm has weakened since it made landfall as the Atlantic season’s first hurricane in 2021. Elsa is forecast to travel offshore from the northeastern United States coast on Friday evening, then head to Canada’s Atlantic provinces late Friday night and Saturday. Over the weekend, the storm is expected to gradually diminish.

After flooding in Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston earlier in the day, flash flood watches were still in force for Maine on Friday evening.

Through Friday, much of the Northeast will see 2 to 4 inches of rain, with up to 6 inches likely in portions of New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The National Weather Service cautioned that this may result in “significant flash and urban floods.”

All tropical storm watches and warnings have been lifted.

Flight schedules at LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City were interrupted on Friday due to severe weather. Due to the prediction, the city has also suspended its mobile COVID-19 immunization clinics until Friday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York City claimed Elsa caused system-wide bus delays and that the storm might disrupt service on several subway and rail lines. Due to the weather, empty tractor-trailers and tandem trucks are prohibited on the MTA’s seven bridges and two tunnels until at least midday on Friday.

Elsa has been blamed for at least four deaths since it developed in the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month.

According to The Associated Press, one death was recorded in St. Lucia and two more in the Dominican Republic when the storm hit numerous eastern Caribbean islands as a Category 1 hurricane. Local officials in Jacksonville, Florida, confirmed one death.